Chapter 10

A/N: I do not own anything other than the plot! The Lion King characters belong to Disney and the Harry Potter characters belong to JK Rowling.

*ducks flying projectiles* I am so sorry this is late and yet, it's still not the latest I've been on a chapter. Makes me oddly proud. But as I've stated on other stories I've updated, real life has been a beast and I've just now found the time to update.

I'm keeping the poll up on my profile and I added a couple of new options because I realized that they weren't on there before. Same thing as always, you can pick up to five stories to vote on so if more than one of your favorites is on the 'must update' list, you can vote for both!

So yeah. Oh, thank you for all the reviews, favorites, alerts and views! Currently, this story is at 14, 079 views! *smiles at all of you*

So enjoy the chapter and please review!

Simba sighed as he looked around the room. Lily had already taken care of the younger version of Harry and was currently lavishing him with attention. Sarabi was curled up as the younger version of himself nursed off of her and the younger version of Neville was being entertained by bubbles coming out of Frank's wand.

It was just so surreal. The loved ones they all thought they would never get to see again were sitting in the same room—and no one seemed to mind. Well, other than him but that was rather obvious.

"It's odd isn't it?" Susan said, sitting down next to Simba. "I mean, seeing two different versions of you. You've always seemed so strong, so ready to fight."

"Well, I'm sure there's a baby version of you floating around here too," Simba stated with a smirk.

"I wouldn't doubt that." Susan chuckled. "I was in the same year as the Golden Trio and Neville after all."

Simba chuckled at that and then sighed again. It was really weird seeing Harry interact with people without Ron and Hermione by his side. It just felt wrong—like a puzzle with missing pieces.

"Are you okay?" Susan asked, breaking Simba off from his thoughts.

"What do you mean?" Simba asked, looking at her.

Susan smiled gently at him before answering. "The bags under your eyes are reaching third year levels. Are you not sleeping again?"

"How did you hear about that?" Simba asked. The only people he told were in this room—and the twins. Susan rolled her eyes fondly.

"Remember when the Hufflepuff prefects came up to you after the holidays asking if everything was okay?" she asked. Simba nodded—that wasn't a fun time in his life, trying to avoid the entire school with the exception of the Slytherins.

"Well, Hannah and I put them up to it," Susan continued. "Cedric helped of course. He heard our planning one day and came up to us, offering to help."

"Really?" Simba raised an eyebrow at that. "But I barely knew him, or him me. What exactly did he gain from helping me?"

Susan chuckled. "Gryffindors. Not everyone is trying to gain something by helping others. Sometimes you help because it's the right thing."

She grew silent and they looked over the room again. Simba didn't know exactly what to make of that—and all he knew was he wished Cedric was here now so he could thank him. But he wasn't, and Simba dreaded when fourth year came up in this story. Harry would be miserable.

"So," Susan said suddenly. "Are we ever going to find out what caused your year long bout of insomnia?"

"You'll find out in these pages probably," Simba grumbled. "I'm not exactly fond of it."

"You mean you're not fond of how you dragged Oliver Wood up the stairs by his underwear?" Susan asked with a giggle. Simba shot her a look—that was not his best moment and yet everyone loved reminding him of it.

"Shush you!" Simba grinned. He and Susan had gotten closer during fifth year and the formation of Dumbledore's Army. He'd never be as close to her as he was with the Golden Trio and Neville but not from a lack of trying. The Gryffindors were of his house, they were the people he would spend the most time with. It would make sense that he was the closest with them.

But Hogwarts was his pride. He hated the fact that he and Harry left after the final battle but it was time for them to go home and go back to the life they were living before Hagrid arrived. They were finding that a little difficult at the moment.

"Hey guys," Neville grinned as he walked over, separating himself from his mother for a few minutes. "What's going on over here?"

"You mean besides Simba lurking the corner trying to protect us all despite the dangers being gone for years?" Susan asked with a chuckle.

"Hey! Habits die hard and you forget who my brother is!"

"Oh yeah," Neville chuckled. "How is your mane not grey with the amount of stress simply knowing Harry must bring?"

"I heard that!"

"You were meant to!" Simba called back to Harry, who responded by making a face at the lion. Simba chuckled. It'd been years but somehow they could easily fall into the same routine without trying.

"But seriously, everything okay?" Neville asked.

"Simba's not sleeping again," Susan told him and Neville shuddered.

"Seriously mate?! I get that you're living Merlin knows where but come on!"

"It's not that bad!" Simba told him, cursing his luck for having perceptive friends. I mean, Harry wasn't too bad—until you tried to hide something from him. Then he got really annoying. Especially when he included Ron and Hermione.

"Two words—Oliver Wood."

"Will people stop bringing that up!" Simba shouted, drawing attention over to their little gathering. Harry walked over, curious as to what was up.

"What's wrong?" he asked, concerned. Simba rarely lost his cool with friends so it was probably something major. Either that or Simba was lying to him when he said the nightmares were gone.

"Neville mentioned the Oliver Wood incident," Susan told him, trying hard to hide her chuckles. Harry made no such attempt but instead burst out laughing.

"Really Harry?" Simba glared at his brother.

"I-I'm sorry! I-It's just th-that it ha-append so long ago that you getting up-upset about it is so fu-unny!" Harry said, trying to speak through his laughter. No one noticed the smiles on James and Lily's faces as they watched their son continue to laugh at the lion. Susan and Neville decided to give up on hiding their laughter and joined in, only causing Simba to deepen his glare.

"Someone want to fill the rest of us in on the joke?" Mufasa asked, concerned for his son.

"I'm sure you'll find out in due time," Simba muttered, hoping it wouldn't be in there. It was one thing for his friends to remember—it was another thing for his father to witness and hear about it.

"Well, I'll make sure I'm the one reading when they do," Harry said, recovering from his bought of laughter. Simba raised an eyebrow.

"Oh really? Well, I guess if there was anything that you wanted to hide brother of mine, then that would make it my duty to read that part. Maybe anything with Cho in it?"

Harry flushed at the reminder of his past crush and growled at Simba. "You wouldn't dare!"

He would only imagine the teasing he'd get from his father, godfather and Lupin.

"Try me," Simba smirked and just like that the tension had faded away from the room.

"Seriously? You guys really need to tease each other in a way that doesn't make me think you're going to start wrestling," Neville sighed.

"Once! It happened once!" Harry told him.

"Once a year," Neville shot back. "Not counting seventh year. "

Harry and Simba looked sheepish at the reminder and Susan couldn't help but chuckle at their expressions.

"Just don't let it happened around the younger versions of you," Lily told them and then blinked. "I think that's the strangest sentence I've ever had to say."

"Lily, you married James and therefore married Sirius," Alice told her. "I'm sure you've either said or will say weirder."

Everyone chuckled at that and the group reformed to continue reading.

"Albus," James spoke up, realizing something. "If the door is locked, how are we going to get food and places to sleep? Your office is rather small after all."

"The house elves will be able to bring food up to us for as long as we need it," Dumbledore stated with a kind smile. "As for rooms, I believe we will have to make due for now."

"Meh, I've been through worse," Harry muttered to Simba.

I just hope I don't wake everyone up with my nightmares, Simba thought with dread. No matter what, he would always feel guilty about the Battle of Hogwarts—even though they won. Every scene of the battle would play around in his head at night, plaguing him, along with scenes of his father's death.

Oh Merlin, please let me have a normal night's rest!

"Shall we begin?" Dumbledore asked, not realizing Simba's dilemma. "Who shall read for us?"

"I'll read!" Sarabi volunteered, eager to learn more about her son's future. Dumbledore cast the same spell he used to make the pages read themselves as he used when Mufasa read. Everyone settled in, eager for another chapter.